1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multi-function device connected to an information processing apparatus such as a computer for providing at least a printer function and a facsimile function. The present invention also relates to an information storing medium such as a ROM for use in such a multi-function device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, multi-function devices are increasingly used as peripheral equipments for information processing apparatuses such as personal computers. A typical example of a multi-function device is the one which has a printer function and a facsimile function.
In such a multi-function device, separate memory areas are allocated respectively for the printer function and the facsimile function, and the respective memory areas have a sufficient capacity. In this case, however, the overall memory capacity becomes inevitably great to result in a cost increase.
For avoiding such a cost increase, it is conceivable to use a memory of a relatively small capacity for both of the printer and and facsimile functions. In this case, however, since the facsimile function requires a relatively large portion of the memory, the memory is likely to reach a memory full state if the memory receives a large amount of printing data from the information processing apparatus to which the multi-function device is connected. As a result, the multi-function device is liable to malfunction due to errors resulting from the memory full state.